| You work for a school division which has a very low-income student
population. Many of these students speak a second language and the
demographics include cities and a small rural farming community. It is a
challenge to find money for instructional programs but the division and
community members want to increase the technology expertise of students and
teachers.
You and your partners are on a subcommittee investigating current issues of
technology use in schools. Be sure to look at these issues from different
perspectives - age groups of users, home/personal use, ability levels,
special-needs populations, etc.... so that you can discuss how the various
issues affect all constituents.
Your task is to learn about the challenges and benefits due to technology
and how to best serve the community with educational technology. You will
look for best practices from other school divisions and predict some
challenges that the committee will face in educational technology. You will
share your knowledge, opinions, insights and perspectives and predict ways
to circumvent some of the pitfalls.
Your recommendations will be used to guide a school division technology
plan - so read carefully, think deeply and weigh the consequences of
your suggestions for ALL stakeholders of the decisions! A
cost/benefit study will be conducted by another sub-committee based on your
plan so you do NOT have to be concerned with costs - just with what
educational technology should ideally encompass.
Some guiding questions:
1. To what extent do we owe the students, parents, and community a
technologically proficient graduate?
2. What should we require students to learn?
3. If technology is embedded in the curriculum, will ALL have equitable
access to it?
4. If technology isn't embedded into the curriculum, will it be used? How
can we ensure it is?
5. Are we using technology to level the playing field for the disabled or
handicapped students? for the poor, rural, or ESOL populations?
6. Are we missing valuable opportunities that technology could offer?
7. If technology hardware is outdated rapidly, are we willing to commit
monetarily to a 5-year refresh cycle? Will the taxpayers support that?
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